National Mathematics Day 2022: Five facts about the life of Srinivas Ramanujan, the man who knew infinity

National Mathematics Day 2022:Every year 22 December is observed as National Mathematics Day to honour the great Indian mathematics prodigy, Srinivas Ramanujan on his birth anniversary. He amazed the entire world with his exceptional skills in mathematics, but for him, it was all the doing of one true power. He was a deeply religious man who credited his entire mathematical capacities and success to divinity and his familial goddess, Namagiri Thayar.

He even once said in honour of the divine power, "An equation for me has no meaning unless it expresses a thought of God".

As we observe the day, let's take a look into the extraordinary life of an absolute mathematics magician, Ramanujan:

1.Ramanujan used to enjoy Mathematics from a very young age and was so interested in the subject, that he mastered the entire trigonometry at the age of 12 only.

2. He studied at the Government College in Kumbakonam at the age of 14, but he was so intent on mathematics that he could not focus on any other subjects and failed most of them.

3.Ramanujan began working as a clerk for the Madras Port Trust in 1912. Some of his colleagues recognised his mathematical brilliance, and one of them referred him to Professor GH Hardy of Trinity College, Cambridge University. He met Hardy in 1913 and then attended Trinity College.

4.In 1917, Ramanujan was elected to the London Mathematical Society. The following year, he was elected to the prestigious Royal Society for his work on Elliptic Functions and number theory. He was also the first Indian to be elected as a Trinity College Fellow.

5.Despite having no formal training in pure mathematics, Ramanujan made a significant contribution to the discipline in his short life. Infinite series, continued fractions, number theory, and mathematical analysis wereamong his research interests.

Robert Kanigel wrote abiography on his life and his rise to fame in the world by the name of'The Man Who Knew Infinity'.Dev Patel, a British-Indian actor, played Ramanujan in the 2015 film of the same name. The film focused on Ramanujan's childhood in India, his time in Britain, and his path to becoming the world's greatest mathematician.

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